sitting in a long haulway of vinyl seats, i'm at the corner situation of three states: Ohio, Kentucky, and Home.
treated like a terrorist by racists who look at me and my baggy clothes and think i might have a knife, they ask me to unzip, and, removing my belt, they see my backpack and thank me for my political beliefs. but they spray me anyway - "6 puffs of air, keep yr feet on the footprints!" - and still don't let me keep my bottle of water.
the sun is setting in a plume of smog, as Indiana on my right churns out more. the orange spotlight in my eyes, all i see are the 5 inches below the afterglow. my feet propped up on the window's ledge, a sign that reads "Smoking Permitted in designated areas only" now reads "Smoking e mitted," as my big toes block out letters, my hands trying to block out the sun, while my clothes stink of smoke from the roadside diner - Mr. Herb's.
i see my reflection in the glass - my face blacked out - i'm looking hippy and my hands don't look like my own. i read somewhere that 9 out of 10 people can't recognize their own hands. if they took pictures of them and had to pick em out of a hand line-up, they'd have the wrong murderer.
i'm washed in orange glow, on my way to the Grand Ol' Seat, and the sun is beginning to dip down. i've got a suitcase and my backpack politics, and i'm ready to go.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
W! ASH! ING!-TON BABY, DC!
i'm off to Washington, D.C. this weekend for the Campus Progress Student Advisory Board organizing retreat.
i've been working on developing training workshops for student activists, as well as brainstorming ideas for youth organizing caucuses throughout the nation. i'm quite excited about the work i'm doing. building a national youth movement! the revolution is imminent! and i'm a part of it! what could be more tantalizing, i ask you!?
so, as i pack my bags and finish various projects, try to figure out how to drive from Baltimore to D.C., and try to eat all the peaches and pears left in my fruit basket, let's listen to The Magnetic Fields together.
mp3: Washington, D.C. [yousendit]
"W a-s-h i-n-g t-o-n, baby, D.C.!"
-stef
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Miami University Students for Staff Organize a Staff Appreciation Day
The Miami University student organization, Students for Staff, has organized a community-wide event in honor of all Miami employees. The free dinner and reception is an effort by the group to unite the community in a show of appreciation for and solidarity with staff.
The group has been waging a 3-year long campaign for a living wage for all Miami staff members. Based on records of staff wages and benefits, data collected from the Miami Human Resources department, and research by local poverty experts and market analysis reports, the group believes that a total of 449 full-time Miami staff are potentially living in poverty, with many more possibly qualifying for government assistance.
Students for Staff has taken multiple approaches to their activism. In addition to researching local economics, national poverty standards, and living wage policies at comparable universities, the group has informed their living wage campaign with an invested care and concern for the members of their local community. The students have made efforts in the past year and half to form genuine relationships with staff members and understand their situations, a perspective they have tried to share with the administration of Miami.
According to Stephanie Lee, one of the student organizers of the campaign, this is what distinguishes the group's approach.
"Administrators and management haven't taken the time to listen to the individual voices of the staff, to understand what each staff member goes through to make their living. A lot of staff won't even talk to a boss or supervisor about it because they're afraid. As students at this university, we have felt it is our responsibility to share these stories and to seek justice for our friends and neighbors at this university who aren't being treated fairly."
At a university with one of the highest Princeton Review rankings for "lack of diversity" and "lack of class interaction," this event marks a significant moment in the efforts toward community-building at Miami. When asked about the event, Stephanie Lee had this to say: "Some might note that this has wholly been a student effort. We came up with this idea, we planned and organized everything ourselves. We want to make a point about student-staff, student-administrator, and staff-administrator relations at Miami. It should be striking to everyone that the students are the ones who initiated a reception for the staff. I think it says a lot about our campaign that we have taken the time to get to know the staff, and that there is a genuine feeling of understanding and empathy. And I think that adds a lot of validity to our argument for better wages. Even though this event is not political in tone, it certainly has political intentions. We're not going to pretend that this isn't about a living wage, because of course it is. If you respect your workers and you respect your community, you'll understand that a living wage is just one way to right the wrongs perpetrated by our administration against our community-members. If you care about your community, and you care about the people in it, one thing should follow the other. If you support the staff, you would support a living wage."
The flyers advertising the event read as follows:
Staff Day 2007 will occur on Wednesday, September 26th, from 5-7 pm at the Fine Arts Pavilion on the Oxford campus of Miami University. All are invited.
For more information, please visit the student group's website, at musfs.org
==============================
-stephanie lee, Free Radical Publishing
The group has been waging a 3-year long campaign for a living wage for all Miami staff members. Based on records of staff wages and benefits, data collected from the Miami Human Resources department, and research by local poverty experts and market analysis reports, the group believes that a total of 449 full-time Miami staff are potentially living in poverty, with many more possibly qualifying for government assistance.
Students for Staff has taken multiple approaches to their activism. In addition to researching local economics, national poverty standards, and living wage policies at comparable universities, the group has informed their living wage campaign with an invested care and concern for the members of their local community. The students have made efforts in the past year and half to form genuine relationships with staff members and understand their situations, a perspective they have tried to share with the administration of Miami.
According to Stephanie Lee, one of the student organizers of the campaign, this is what distinguishes the group's approach.
"Administrators and management haven't taken the time to listen to the individual voices of the staff, to understand what each staff member goes through to make their living. A lot of staff won't even talk to a boss or supervisor about it because they're afraid. As students at this university, we have felt it is our responsibility to share these stories and to seek justice for our friends and neighbors at this university who aren't being treated fairly."
At a university with one of the highest Princeton Review rankings for "lack of diversity" and "lack of class interaction," this event marks a significant moment in the efforts toward community-building at Miami. When asked about the event, Stephanie Lee had this to say: "Some might note that this has wholly been a student effort. We came up with this idea, we planned and organized everything ourselves. We want to make a point about student-staff, student-administrator, and staff-administrator relations at Miami. It should be striking to everyone that the students are the ones who initiated a reception for the staff. I think it says a lot about our campaign that we have taken the time to get to know the staff, and that there is a genuine feeling of understanding and empathy. And I think that adds a lot of validity to our argument for better wages. Even though this event is not political in tone, it certainly has political intentions. We're not going to pretend that this isn't about a living wage, because of course it is. If you respect your workers and you respect your community, you'll understand that a living wage is just one way to right the wrongs perpetrated by our administration against our community-members. If you care about your community, and you care about the people in it, one thing should follow the other. If you support the staff, you would support a living wage."
The flyers advertising the event read as follows:
Staff Day 2007 will occur on Wednesday, September 26th, from 5-7 pm at the Fine Arts Pavilion on the Oxford campus of Miami University. All are invited.For more information, please visit the student group's website, at musfs.org
==============================
-stephanie lee, Free Radical Publishing
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
trapt
i am really enjoying this green pen the English dept gave me today. it makes annotating all these books more fun. green stripes on my pages. green dots on my hands. if i were colorblind, is this what chicken pox would look like?
i've gotten myself stuck at my desk. there are piles of books all around me, a stack on my left and another on my right, stacks on the floor, and a stack by my head. i bumped into my advisor this afternoon, and we had a chat about my project, and how i'm mapping out the course of my thesis in this ridiculous process that will prove to most i am absolutely mad-hatter mad, and i explained how i am literally, physically immersing myself in my project by surrounding myself with it at all times. i described the book situation i got going on, and he told me a story about a satire he read once about this layman type fellow who was reading up on some writer i've since forgotten the name of, and how he got in a row with some literary hoss, and was tossed most unfortunately into a bookshelf, loaded top to bottom with these hefty volumes of pretentious literature. the shelf collapsed on his head, and he was dead.
i laughed kinda hard at the irony then, but now find myself trapped and waiting for an avalanche.
-stef
i've gotten myself stuck at my desk. there are piles of books all around me, a stack on my left and another on my right, stacks on the floor, and a stack by my head. i bumped into my advisor this afternoon, and we had a chat about my project, and how i'm mapping out the course of my thesis in this ridiculous process that will prove to most i am absolutely mad-hatter mad, and i explained how i am literally, physically immersing myself in my project by surrounding myself with it at all times. i described the book situation i got going on, and he told me a story about a satire he read once about this layman type fellow who was reading up on some writer i've since forgotten the name of, and how he got in a row with some literary hoss, and was tossed most unfortunately into a bookshelf, loaded top to bottom with these hefty volumes of pretentious literature. the shelf collapsed on his head, and he was dead.
i laughed kinda hard at the irony then, but now find myself trapped and waiting for an avalanche.
-stef
Monday, September 17, 2007
capitalism
storing this image for future use in my thesis, particularly for side-to-side comparison with a visual representation of the traditional educational system and its business.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
poetic deference
so, despite last week's setback, i'm going ahead with my project. in fact, i've begun the tedious process of mapping (a la my efforts in the spring of 2006) the flow of arguments therein, in what i think will be quite the impressive finished document, a physically expansive display of the scope of my thesis.
and i've come to the decision that just because the gate-keepers demand i conform to a certain form and formula, doesn't mean i can't enjoy it. or that i can't successfully subvert the institution and its mechanic rituals by satirizing them. i can adopt the form as my weapon, like Monique Wittig's Trojan Horse. a bomb masked in stealth by which to explode the ramparts from within. my subversion and radicalism all the more effective for wearing the disguise supplied by the Academy.
and, i've been reading this beautiful book called On Learning and Social Change (sadly out of print), which i accidentally discovered at Highlander. it's full of some astute observations, including a chapter on the ecology of violence in the university (notes on the tao of education).
i plan to quote from it extensively. so, to put some fantastic poetic imagery in your face, some words from Michael Rossman:
"one mode of teaching is triumphant in the University. minds are to be filled with information. image of a hand closing on a piece of data, fist plunging into watermelon. image of a cock ejaculating. SOCK IT TO ME!" (p.160)
sound of a gun blasting!
-stef
and i've come to the decision that just because the gate-keepers demand i conform to a certain form and formula, doesn't mean i can't enjoy it. or that i can't successfully subvert the institution and its mechanic rituals by satirizing them. i can adopt the form as my weapon, like Monique Wittig's Trojan Horse. a bomb masked in stealth by which to explode the ramparts from within. my subversion and radicalism all the more effective for wearing the disguise supplied by the Academy.
and, i've been reading this beautiful book called On Learning and Social Change (sadly out of print), which i accidentally discovered at Highlander. it's full of some astute observations, including a chapter on the ecology of violence in the university (notes on the tao of education).
i plan to quote from it extensively. so, to put some fantastic poetic imagery in your face, some words from Michael Rossman:
"one mode of teaching is triumphant in the University. minds are to be filled with information. image of a hand closing on a piece of data, fist plunging into watermelon. image of a cock ejaculating. SOCK IT TO ME!" (p.160)
sound of a gun blasting!
-stef
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
i should have seen this coming...
and of course, just as i got going, i hit a brick wall.
yesterday i found out that i might not get my degree.
"why?" you ask? it's called gate-keeping. it's why i hate the educational system.
listen/read:
Why aren't you going to get your degree!?!
it's just so frustrating because i knew this would happen, i just wasn't prepared to have to fight for the integrity of my project so early in the process!
oh's
-stephanie
yesterday i found out that i might not get my degree.
"why?" you ask? it's called gate-keeping. it's why i hate the educational system.
listen/read:
Why aren't you going to get your degree!?!
9:35 AM me: oh that's a funny story
we had senior project presentations yesterday
9:36 AM and i was explaining how i had this radical idea to change the format of my project
9:37 AM i'm looking at the educational system as a power system, an extension of the capitalist hierarchy that has historically ignored and excluded communities of difference
9:38 AM well, i'm also looking at schooling rituals, and seeing my project as an extension of this power system and its rituals and habits, i don't want that to be the kind of project i write
9:39 AM also, theory and practice is one of the core considerations in my thesis, i'm arguing for better educational practices that honor the "democratic promise" and theory of education
9:43 AM so, when i was explaining to Bill that i wanted to write my thesis with as little jargon as possible (jargon being the language that conveys power and authority to an arbitrary author. jargon also being the technical language that wedges a distance between communities, the language that marginalizes), opting instead for a dialogic or conversational writing style (a la Myles Horton and Paulo Freire and other practitioners i've been studying), Bill asked me "if i wanted my degree."
| 8 minutes |
9:51 AM me: i didn't really think he was being serious, but then he explained to me that "this is an academic exercise and you're going to have to conform to its expectations if you want to be recognized by the institution"
9:52 AM i was extremely upset
it's just so frustrating because i knew this would happen, i just wasn't prepared to have to fight for the integrity of my project so early in the process!
oh's
-stephanie
Monday, September 10, 2007
project progress
i finally articulated my Senior Project focus in 50 words or less! it is, admittedly, a little obvious to me now, and i wonder why it took me so long, but i think the actual project itself will be a little more nuanced, particularly in its execution.
anyway, my thesis topic:
"Student Activism as Critical-Democratic Praxis" (working title)
how student groups and movements create democratic spaces that challenge and rewrite traditional power structures found in the (increasingly market-influenced) world of academia.
important note to self: explore "the academy" itself as a symbol of power, oppression (in its history of ignoring minority voices and communities, i.e. based on race, gender, class, and age/experience)
anyway, my thesis topic:
"Student Activism as Critical-Democratic Praxis" (working title)
how student groups and movements create democratic spaces that challenge and rewrite traditional power structures found in the (increasingly market-influenced) world of academia.
important note to self: explore "the academy" itself as a symbol of power, oppression (in its history of ignoring minority voices and communities, i.e. based on race, gender, class, and age/experience)
Thursday, September 06, 2007
that little pop you just heard was the sound of your mind rupturing
in one of my Educational Leadership classes earlier this week:
professor: "did you know they decided to stop teaching cursive as part of the curriculum?"
one music ed. major: "that is so stupid! how are people going to sign their checks?!?"
blank stares, long pause
prof: "yeah... lots of people sign in cursive..."
music ed: "i mean, older people will write in cursive and they won't even know how to read it!!"
---
later in class (same day):
prof: "so why do the authors say we need theory?"
another music ed major: "it's a necessary evil."
theory = evil...?
my mind: BLOWN.
-stef
professor: "did you know they decided to stop teaching cursive as part of the curriculum?"
one music ed. major: "that is so stupid! how are people going to sign their checks?!?"
blank stares, long pause
prof: "yeah... lots of people sign in cursive..."
music ed: "i mean, older people will write in cursive and they won't even know how to read it!!"
---
later in class (same day):
prof: "so why do the authors say we need theory?"
another music ed major: "it's a necessary evil."
theory = evil...?
my mind: BLOWN.
-stef
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
social change movements in the South are alive and well!
the library at Highlanderi have returned from Highlander in TN with the happy news that social change in the South is alive and well.
75 years after its inception, and Highlander is still inspiring activists to build communities, to enact the change we hope one day to see, and speak truth to power.
it was a fantastic weekend, filled with workshops on popular education, political guerilla theatre, GLBTQ identities in activism, and lots of singing, joining hands, powerful anecdotes, and handclaps!
anyway, i'm tired now. classes are disappointing. i wish i could be back in the library with the spirit of Myles Horton's activism all around me, as i read this amazing little book i found in the library:
how sweet is this diagram depicting the flow of knowledge and relation-building in a democratic society as opposed to capitalist hierarchies?oh, i forgot to mention: as of this week, i'm on Campus Progress's Student Advisory Board, working on Organizing! woo-hoo! later this month: a trip to Washington DC to begin my organizing on a national level...
-stef
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Highlander
readers,
i'm gone this weekend, leaving in a matter of minutes for a conference/ 75th anniversary celebration for Myles Horton's Highlander Folk School. i'll be taking workshops on community organizing in the mountains of Tennessee, re-reading Horton's autobiography, The Long Haul (one pivotal resource in my senior project), and trying not to get bitten up by mosquitoes like i did the last time i was in TN!
so while i enjoy the company of progressive educators and social change makers, pls enjoy the inspiring words of Myles Horton, and imagine you were there with me (oh, if only i could take all of you with me...)
"education is meant to help you do something for others" (3)
"When you work toward equality, you have to devise some kind of structure in which there can be justice, but in the meantime you have to do the best you can in an unjust society. Sometimes that means that the laws you go by are moral laws instead of book laws." (7)
"you learn what you do, and not what you talk about." (16)
"i wanted action to be the main thrust, instead of just talking about future action that you don't practice." (16)
"in order to act on my beliefs i had to accept the idea of civil disobedience. i knew that i might have to violate those laws that were unjust, and i made up my mind never to do something wrong just because it was legal." (16)
"the violence of poverty destroys families, twists minds, hurts in many ways beyond the pain of hunger. there is another kind of violence that supports the violence of poverty, and that is institutionally sanctioned violence." (27)
"i couldn't be an absolute pacifist, because i thought that there might be times when it would be a lesser violence to have a revolution." (38)
"you can't use force to put ideas in people's heads. education must be nonviolent. i can't conceive of another type of education." (41)
i'm gone this weekend, leaving in a matter of minutes for a conference/ 75th anniversary celebration for Myles Horton's Highlander Folk School. i'll be taking workshops on community organizing in the mountains of Tennessee, re-reading Horton's autobiography, The Long Haul (one pivotal resource in my senior project), and trying not to get bitten up by mosquitoes like i did the last time i was in TN!
so while i enjoy the company of progressive educators and social change makers, pls enjoy the inspiring words of Myles Horton, and imagine you were there with me (oh, if only i could take all of you with me...)
"education is meant to help you do something for others" (3)
"When you work toward equality, you have to devise some kind of structure in which there can be justice, but in the meantime you have to do the best you can in an unjust society. Sometimes that means that the laws you go by are moral laws instead of book laws." (7)
"you learn what you do, and not what you talk about." (16)
"i wanted action to be the main thrust, instead of just talking about future action that you don't practice." (16)
"in order to act on my beliefs i had to accept the idea of civil disobedience. i knew that i might have to violate those laws that were unjust, and i made up my mind never to do something wrong just because it was legal." (16)
"the violence of poverty destroys families, twists minds, hurts in many ways beyond the pain of hunger. there is another kind of violence that supports the violence of poverty, and that is institutionally sanctioned violence." (27)
"i couldn't be an absolute pacifist, because i thought that there might be times when it would be a lesser violence to have a revolution." (38)
"you can't use force to put ideas in people's heads. education must be nonviolent. i can't conceive of another type of education." (41)
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
and it goes like this...
great conversation while driving home from WV with the fam:
my brother is talking about having nothing to do in Lexington with his friends.
me [in a mocking deep voice]: "you could pick up chicks"
my mother chimes in: "yeah! pick up chicks. that will keep them busy."
me: "keep who busy?"
Mom: "them. the boys. keep the boys busy."
me: "doing what exactly?"
Mom: "picking up chicks."
mm. a smile so wide you could fit a canoe inside.
-stefanie
my brother is talking about having nothing to do in Lexington with his friends.
me [in a mocking deep voice]: "you could pick up chicks"
my mother chimes in: "yeah! pick up chicks. that will keep them busy."
me: "keep who busy?"
Mom: "them. the boys. keep the boys busy."
me: "doing what exactly?"
Mom: "picking up chicks."
mm. a smile so wide you could fit a canoe inside.
-stefanie
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
an o.k. kind of knowingness
i'm pleased to be found on the top 10 list of returns for a web search of "miami university - not liking it" [done by a MU student on campus, or so says the traffic report]
it's like when someone came upon this sight [sic] while searching for "sophomore slump symptoms," or any of the odd searches that bring ppl to this place.
-stef
it's like when someone came upon this sight [sic] while searching for "sophomore slump symptoms," or any of the odd searches that bring ppl to this place.
-stef
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
with it being super hott [sic] in oxford right now (to stave off health risks, Miami has set up cooling stations all over campus with bottled water and mist-ers, so i feel like i'm at a music festival ALL THE TIME, it's great), i decided to wake up extra early this morning, while most were still sleeping off the last night's festivities, and watch the sun rise from the two giant windows in my room while eating creamy peach yogurt. the mornings are remarkably cooler and calm, and i can't sleep in my new room anyway (it's a nice room, and i've never had trouble sleeping in the dorms in the past, it's just lately i've been unable to stay asleep for very long).
i took a bike ride, and felt high, being super awake to sights and sounds others missed as i passed them by. i saw strange patterns in the clouds, like snake leather, felt the physics of my bike as i balanced a yoga mat on my back, saw a small, exquisite yellow and black bird take flight before me (anyone an ornithologist?), and pulled up to the Rec Center to see people leaving with sleeping bags from having spent the night (another Miami health initiative).
i spent the morning in yoga and pilates classes, contemplating my pelvic floor, it's true location, asking it "how are you?" and saying "good job" and offering it encouragement and support.
i'm going for a bike ride in the woods this weekend, and hopefully finding time to spend with friends and music.
what are u doing?
-stef
i took a bike ride, and felt high, being super awake to sights and sounds others missed as i passed them by. i saw strange patterns in the clouds, like snake leather, felt the physics of my bike as i balanced a yoga mat on my back, saw a small, exquisite yellow and black bird take flight before me (anyone an ornithologist?), and pulled up to the Rec Center to see people leaving with sleeping bags from having spent the night (another Miami health initiative).
i spent the morning in yoga and pilates classes, contemplating my pelvic floor, it's true location, asking it "how are you?" and saying "good job" and offering it encouragement and support.
i'm going for a bike ride in the woods this weekend, and hopefully finding time to spend with friends and music.
what are u doing?
-stef
Thursday, August 23, 2007
what's broken can always be fixed, what's fixed will always be broken
as some of you will remember, i fell in love with the music of a Swede named Jens Lekman.
and as the summer winds down and blows away, taking my memories of it (the smells, the touch and feels) away, too, i find myself listening to his music again. it always seems to find me in these liminal months, when i'm back in the midst of woods in Oxford, Ohio, awaiting the approach of autumn in the corners of rooms by windows, wishing it would rain to match my mood.
i think this is why i love Jens and his music: it allows me to relax and stop trying to articulate pangs i get about delicate moments, and be satisfied in knowing someone understands, that someone put it to song, with handclaps and gentle harp, and extravagant whistling.
i'm realizing time is fleeting. i spend my days now worrying about classes and homework, graduate exams, finding jobs, rushing to the library to grab all the books relevant to my research before someone else can, waiting for weekends so i can trip over to the woods or to the farmers' market. busy busy, always planning ahead, but never seeing directly in front of me.
i read a beautiful reflection on the death of a friend, on how the smallest details are what you always linger on to remember someone. "glances, touches, purchases, short phone calls, preparing a snack, standing in a doorway, taking off or putting on shoes." same goes for memories of your own life, i guess. all you have are moments.
which is why i return to Jens Lekman every summer, and especially why i listen to him now. he knows what it's like to want, more than anything, to prolong this moment, and every moment thereafter, to long to stretch out the spaces between seconds and climb inside and build a home. "The desire to go back to another time, to swim for a while there, and to cast it in rosy light. The doomed, daft act of revisiting a lost place and gilding it gold." [source]
-stef
---
speaking of moments, i stayed up all night remembering the summer in lost journal entries. i remember i've yet to fulfill my promise of posting writing from my summer travel journals. is there any desire any more?
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
dangerous familiars
hi to all you patient and adoring darlings!
thanks for your patience these past few days. i've been busy traveling all over West Virginia and Kentucky, and have just recently returned to being settled and having all my things in one small room again.
that is, i'm back at Miami University for one final year. and as i'm shopping around for the most interesting and compelling classes to take, while i'm stressing out about my undergraduate thesis and studying for the GRE's and planning student actions for all my various activisms, i've also found, in the blissful off-time, a surprising nostalgia and reminiscence creeping over me.
even as i look around the campus, at the frightening droves of willowy blondes and preppy jock boys, their polished exteriors enough to make me insecure, and despite the inexplicable phenomenon of cornhole that seems to proliferate here, i can sense that i'm really going to miss this place next fall, when i will surely/hopefully be somewhere far, far away.
i know it's merely because i've gotten familiar with the place, have become accustomed to moving back to the same dorm for the past 4 years, am grateful to see the same familiar faces, to have such a strong community in which to wallow, enjoy coming back each year geared up and ready to fight for a cause i've been devoted to for over 5 semesters.
but...
this familiarity has me kinda scared too. comfort is overrated, even dangerous. keeping on your toes becomes kinda like floating, when you get good at it. and who doesn't want to defy gravity?
i got to thinking about this in one of my classes today. i was sitting in a class full of Education majors, a class called "Cultural Studies, Power, and Education," a class filled with typical Miami-types, feeling a little on edge because everyone in there was so white bread [sic]. the professor had been trying all of class to ease us into a radical mindset (which i gratefully dived right into), while we examined ads from the 90's that proffered 40's gender politics to preschool aged consumers. i glanced around the room to see students rolling their eyes, grimacing at the mention of atheism and Marxism, the girl beside me scrawling the word SOCIALIST in big letters across the first blank page of her notebook, and underlining it.
i give the professor a lot of credit. to open with that kind of radical leap in student expectation is truly courageous. i'm counting on a smaller class next time around.
anyway, this moment turned into a huge realization for my research into the practice of critical pedagogy:
for me (and i consider myself fairly radical, surprise, surprise), this first class wasn't unusual or myth-busting at all. in fact, it was too easy to agree with the professor, too natural to nod along, to laugh at his leftist jokes, to feel grateful for and, yes, comfortable with a liberal bias in the classroom.
on the other hand, my peers were noticeably unnerved, even perturbed, by the professor and what they must have perceived to be Commie rantings. and so, they were reluctant to engage, hesitant to open their minds to the possibility that advertisers care less about the consumer than about selling products.
and then i realized, looking around, everyone in this class was wearing nice Polo Ralph Lauren polo shirts, J Crew khakis, their heads gelled and kempt, glistening examples of Miami's "squarely in the box" reputation. of course they couldn't open their minds to cultural studies and critical pedagogy! it made them uncomfortable!
when capitalism is working for you, when you're comfortable with it, you see no need, no reason, to challenge it. comfort and capitalism are closely related, in fact, they are co-conspirators. in a society used to instant gratification, it becomes hard to get people used to stepping out of their comfort zones. why would they ever have to, if they can find a KFC wherever they go? same goes for ideological comfort zones.
existential discomfort = the worst kind.
thots!
-stef
---
speaking of familiars, you should get familiar with the guys over at Said the Gramophone. they keep one of the most beautifully written music blogs out there. in fact, it's one of only 2 i actually read on a regular basis. this post was particularly striking and appropriate for the approaching end of summer. FUN TIMES FOREVER.
thanks for your patience these past few days. i've been busy traveling all over West Virginia and Kentucky, and have just recently returned to being settled and having all my things in one small room again.
that is, i'm back at Miami University for one final year. and as i'm shopping around for the most interesting and compelling classes to take, while i'm stressing out about my undergraduate thesis and studying for the GRE's and planning student actions for all my various activisms, i've also found, in the blissful off-time, a surprising nostalgia and reminiscence creeping over me.
even as i look around the campus, at the frightening droves of willowy blondes and preppy jock boys, their polished exteriors enough to make me insecure, and despite the inexplicable phenomenon of cornhole that seems to proliferate here, i can sense that i'm really going to miss this place next fall, when i will surely/hopefully be somewhere far, far away.
i know it's merely because i've gotten familiar with the place, have become accustomed to moving back to the same dorm for the past 4 years, am grateful to see the same familiar faces, to have such a strong community in which to wallow, enjoy coming back each year geared up and ready to fight for a cause i've been devoted to for over 5 semesters.
but...
this familiarity has me kinda scared too. comfort is overrated, even dangerous. keeping on your toes becomes kinda like floating, when you get good at it. and who doesn't want to defy gravity?
i got to thinking about this in one of my classes today. i was sitting in a class full of Education majors, a class called "Cultural Studies, Power, and Education," a class filled with typical Miami-types, feeling a little on edge because everyone in there was so white bread [sic]. the professor had been trying all of class to ease us into a radical mindset (which i gratefully dived right into), while we examined ads from the 90's that proffered 40's gender politics to preschool aged consumers. i glanced around the room to see students rolling their eyes, grimacing at the mention of atheism and Marxism, the girl beside me scrawling the word SOCIALIST in big letters across the first blank page of her notebook, and underlining it.
i give the professor a lot of credit. to open with that kind of radical leap in student expectation is truly courageous. i'm counting on a smaller class next time around.
anyway, this moment turned into a huge realization for my research into the practice of critical pedagogy:
for me (and i consider myself fairly radical, surprise, surprise), this first class wasn't unusual or myth-busting at all. in fact, it was too easy to agree with the professor, too natural to nod along, to laugh at his leftist jokes, to feel grateful for and, yes, comfortable with a liberal bias in the classroom.
on the other hand, my peers were noticeably unnerved, even perturbed, by the professor and what they must have perceived to be Commie rantings. and so, they were reluctant to engage, hesitant to open their minds to the possibility that advertisers care less about the consumer than about selling products.
and then i realized, looking around, everyone in this class was wearing nice Polo Ralph Lauren polo shirts, J Crew khakis, their heads gelled and kempt, glistening examples of Miami's "squarely in the box" reputation. of course they couldn't open their minds to cultural studies and critical pedagogy! it made them uncomfortable!
when capitalism is working for you, when you're comfortable with it, you see no need, no reason, to challenge it. comfort and capitalism are closely related, in fact, they are co-conspirators. in a society used to instant gratification, it becomes hard to get people used to stepping out of their comfort zones. why would they ever have to, if they can find a KFC wherever they go? same goes for ideological comfort zones.
existential discomfort = the worst kind.
thots!
-stef
---
speaking of familiars, you should get familiar with the guys over at Said the Gramophone. they keep one of the most beautifully written music blogs out there. in fact, it's one of only 2 i actually read on a regular basis. this post was particularly striking and appropriate for the approaching end of summer. FUN TIMES FOREVER.
Friday, August 17, 2007
mo' money, mo' problems...
...or, something...
got back from WV with the fam! lost my momentum while mountain-biking on a steep slope of loose rocks and plummeted to a surprising non-death. considering the odds, i'm in good shape, just a few scratches on my knee, bum, and arm.
got some great footage of the parents singing John Denver while driving thru the WV mountains. will post later when i can access the harddrive again! (it's packed and ready for Oxford!)
so many things to do before i move back! how will i ever find all the space and time in which to do it?!
while sorting thru the myriad loose papers and random mementoes i've accumulated in the past 14 or so months, i (re)found these weird decision maps.
i remember finding them for the first time while doing laundry/ working late one night in the dorm.
these are merely a few of the small packet i found - there are oh-so many more! could there be a series of them, awaiting discovery?
the possibility is just too delightful to contemplate right now.
-stef
got back from WV with the fam! lost my momentum while mountain-biking on a steep slope of loose rocks and plummeted to a surprising non-death. considering the odds, i'm in good shape, just a few scratches on my knee, bum, and arm.
got some great footage of the parents singing John Denver while driving thru the WV mountains. will post later when i can access the harddrive again! (it's packed and ready for Oxford!)
so many things to do before i move back! how will i ever find all the space and time in which to do it?!
while sorting thru the myriad loose papers and random mementoes i've accumulated in the past 14 or so months, i (re)found these weird decision maps.
i remember finding them for the first time while doing laundry/ working late one night in the dorm.
these are merely a few of the small packet i found - there are oh-so many more! could there be a series of them, awaiting discovery?
the possibility is just too delightful to contemplate right now.
-stef
Sunday, August 12, 2007
marathon (wo)man
as i mentioned yesterday, i ran a half marathon in my hometown of Lexington, KY, The Midsummer Night's Run.
my standards were pretty low, considering i haven't trained due to some persistent medical problems related to over-exertion (shin splints put me in physical therapy for 5 weeks this summer), and because i just returned from a grueling road-trip that left me exhausted, both from heat and probably malnutrition (i lost 8 pounds in 5 days!)
nevertheless, i finished. not in any sort of record-breaking time, but i did manage to stay in the upper half of the contestants. and i'll take that.
some glimpses of the moments before the race:
i am a runner...
... and he is my father's son.
this is what i'll look like when the gun goes off
timing chip - for keeping time
brother/sister combo
-stef
p.s. will be gone this next week with the fam in West Virginia, then packing to go back to school. drop a line and i'll say hey when i'm back in Oxford again!
my standards were pretty low, considering i haven't trained due to some persistent medical problems related to over-exertion (shin splints put me in physical therapy for 5 weeks this summer), and because i just returned from a grueling road-trip that left me exhausted, both from heat and probably malnutrition (i lost 8 pounds in 5 days!)
nevertheless, i finished. not in any sort of record-breaking time, but i did manage to stay in the upper half of the contestants. and i'll take that.
some glimpses of the moments before the race:
i am a runner...
... and he is my father's son.
this is what i'll look like when the gun goes off
timing chip - for keeping time
brother/sister combo-stef
p.s. will be gone this next week with the fam in West Virginia, then packing to go back to school. drop a line and i'll say hey when i'm back in Oxford again!
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